


Devil’s in the Details

by Inkribbon796



Series: Masks and Maladies [35]
Category: Markiplier fandom - Fandom, Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Faustian deals, Gen, Illinois and his supernatural luck, Still a Dark Side Virgil, superhero au, void magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:54:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21525541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkribbon796/pseuds/Inkribbon796
Summary: Virgil knew he’d been on Dark’s radar for sometime. But Dark doesn’t seem to want a fight, he just wants to talk.
Series: Masks and Maladies [35]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538131
Comments: 4
Kudos: 95





	Devil’s in the Details

**Author's Note:**

> Another name for this short is: Virgil learns to play with fire.

Virgil stuffed into the coffee shop in his black hoodie, he was trying to go for the whole  _ “undercover civilian” _ thing that most of the heroes did. The heroes obviously didn’t know who he was with his cloak so he was taking advantage of it to grab a coffee like a normal person.

No one had called him out on it so he was obviously doing something right. Virgil even made sure to pay for his coffee.

His anxiety and natural paranoia made him look around the shop as he picked a seat in a windowless corner of the room.

“Mind if I sit here?” A guy with circular glasses and a tweed grey suit walked over to him.

At this time of the day the shop was almost empty, but not wanting to start a fight, Virgil nodded, “Sure, why not.”

“Thanks,” he smiled at Virgil and the nervous Dark Side smiled back. The professor-looking guy, although he barely looked out of high school, sat down and started reading a book he’d brought in with him.

Trying to stay calm, Virgil just waited for his coffee. He’d just leave and go to King’s park. The hero didn’t seem recognize him and it was a safe place to—

The guy in the tweed suit set a small letter close to Virgil but not close enough to be touching his arm. On the front, in Dark’s flowing, cursive script was Anxiety’s name on the front of the envelope.

Virgil tried not to panic, looking the guy over as the whole world seemed to shrink in on the anxious side.

“Hey, I’m not here to do anything,” he smiled, and pushed the letter closer. “I’m just here to give you this and ask you to read it.”

“And you’ll go away?” Virgil growled quietly.

“No,” he shrugged, looking back at his book with an overly confident smile on his face. “I have a mocha and a blueberry scone I gotta eat first.”

“Virgil,” the barista smiled and Virgil felt like screaming as the guy casually looked at her, then at Virgil.

“I think that’s you,  _ Virgil _ .”

Internally cursing, Virgil got up and tried to be polite with the barista, she handed him his coffee. And then didn’t let go of it.

“Are you okay?” She asked quietly, eyeing the guy still sitting at Virgil’s table. “I can call the cops.”

“What?” Virgil began to panic even more. “I’m fine, don’t worry.”

“You sure?” She didn’t look convinced.

Trying to smile and sound way more confident than he was, Virgil smiled and said, “Oh yeah, I’m good.”

She looked back at Virgil’s stalker, and then let go and Virgil walked back over to his table.

“What if I don’t take it?” Virgil whispered quietly.

“I can just give it to you some other time,” he answered, eyes still in his book. “I mean, we should probably change the name, right.”

Grinning his teeth, Virgil took a deep breath through his nose and took the letter.

“Illinois,” the barista called out and Virgil’s stalker stood up, dog-earring a page in his book.

“Well, that’s me,” he smiled. Virgil took the opportunity to walk out. Just wanting to get away from what he thought had been a safe place.

Unfortunately, Illinois has caught up with him. The suit replaced with what looked like an Indiana Jones costume, except the hat had a small green bow on it.

“You know, Yan’s not afraid of spiders,” Illinois was sipping on his iced coffee. “She’s got the whole abandonment thing going.”

“What’s with the Indiana Jones get-up, you going to a convention?” Virgil jabbed.

“I just like the aesthetic,” he smiled. “My dad always told me to live my dreams and all that jazz.”

“So does your family do the whole named after the state you were conceived in thing?” Virgil tried to probe, if only cause it bought him some time to get away from the guy before he could open it.

“Don’t know,” he spoke around a mouthful of scone. “M’ adopted.”

“What do I need to do in order to get you to leave me the hell alone?” Virgil demanded, clutching his coffee like a lifeline.

“Open it and give me a  _ “yes or no” _ and I’ll be on my way,” Illinois promised, “I’ve got stuff to do, I stopped babysitting kids years ago.”

“Hey, I’m pretty sure I’m older than you,” Virgil bit back.

“Look, just open it, I’ve got to see my siblings to check if they’ve stopped eating glue and making my old man tear his hair out,” Illinois told Virgil.

“Fine, fine,” Virgil groaned, and tore the letter open as carefully as he could. Inside was a white card with Anxiety’s name on it, and he opened it. It was a handwritten invitation:

__ _ Anxiety, _

__ _ I won’t waste your time with threats or pleasantries. I would like to speak with you, my assistant will bring you to the Oakren. _

__ _ If you are amenable. _

_ Dark _

Anxiety held his hand so it didn’t shake. As straightforward as the letter seemed, Virgil knew better. Dark didn’t make requests, all the time Deceit had them working with Dark and the League, taught Virgil that Dark only made it look like he was being nice, and then gave people enough rope to metaphorically hang themselves on.

Virgil’s internal monologue was just screaming. For a second or two he debated on just dropping the enforcer and running for it. Maybe skip town and go back to Florida. It got too cold in Egoton anyway.

“Is he going to kill me if I go?” Virgil tried to deadpan. Maybe if he just looked bored he could get out of it alive. All he’d really done was keep one of Dark’s favorite enforcers out of jail and put up with Remus. Somehow that didn’t seem worthy of a death sentence, but Virgil had been wrong before.

“Ehhh,” Illinois shrugged, “I mean, I don’t usually just get sent out to deliver messages. But if it helps, if you were going to die, I would have taken you out already.”

Virgil just looked at the guy, who was loudly slurping at his mocha, the thing was clearly empty. Then Illinois threw it away. “Let’s go.”

Then he calmly stepped out into traffic, and Virgil almost had a heart attack as the honking started and he calmly weaved around five cars and fours lanes. The freeway almost an orchestra of horns and angry screams but somehow, no one crashed into each other and Illinois was unscathed.

Deciding against being run over, Virgil took the crosswalk as Illinois patiently waited.

“Didn’t know Dark hired people that crazy and reckless,” Virgil snapped at him. “You could have died.”

“Name’s Illinois,” he formally introduced. “Pleasure to meet me.”

Virgil didn’t know if the confidence was awe inspiring, or grating. All he knew was that he reminded Virgil a lot of Roman. “Alright so where’s the place we’re going.”

“Just a few blocks down,” Illinois promised. “Keep up.”

“If you think I’m going to just walk into traffic with you, think again,” Virgil huffed.

“If you keep pace, you won’t get hit,” Illinois promised. “When you stick close to me, nothing bad happens.”

“Yeah, I really feel like trusting someone who works for Dark,” Virgil reminded.

Illinois laughed at that, a deep chuckle, “Just try and keep up.”

Virgil decided not to trust Illinois, which always kept him struggling to keep up anytime they had to cross the street. By the end of it, Virgil almost wished he’d get hit by something to wipe the smug grin off his face. They reached a nice looking restaurant, and didn’t even bat an eye at Virgil’s oversized hoodie as Illinois led him in.

One of the restaurant hosts led him to a table with a large window. It looked like a small private room and a third chair was added to the table, Virgil’s back to the window. Illinois didn’t enter the room with him, leaving Virgil alone.

After a panic attack, Virgil began sizing up the window. He was pretty sure he could escape, it was just one floor.

“I wouldn’t advise it,” Dark warned as the world around Virgil went grey.

“I didn’t do anything to her,” Virgil immediately growled, hunching his shoulders in, trying to reign his powers in. His fear-based powers were naturally trying to reach out to Dark, much like a well-trained muscle. Virgil doubted Dark had anything to fear, he was the literal embodiment of fear for hundreds of people. It’d been more surprising to Virgil that his powers hadn’t conjured Dark when he’d used it to stun Yan. “If I knew you wanted her to get captured by two of the three Stooges I would have left her hanging.”

“I’m not here to talk about that,” Dark gave him a false smile. “Take a seat,  _ Virgil _ .”

Virgil bit the inside of his cheek, but sat down, Dark looked around the room and the world got less grey. The world seemed like it got jolted by something and suddenly there were two dishes in front of them, Dark turned as if he’d been talking to a waitress.

“You see, Anxiety, I’ve been watching you for some time,” Dark admitted, picking up the glass of what looked like white wine in front of him, his usually ringing nothing more than a dull echo. “The Duke is,” he made a face as took a sip, “aggravating.”

Darkk took a deep breath before smiling again, “Deceit has his qualities that lend well to the job, but not the job I need done right now. You, on the other hand, have one thing that Deceit and Yan don’t have.”

“What’s that?” Virgil dared, curiosity eating at him as much as the knowledge that he couldn’t trust Dark or his smile, or the food in front of either of them.

“Dr. Iplier has taken a liking to you,” Dark reminded, and Virgil’s blood started to run cold. “He and Henrik have been responsible for finding most of the other Heroes and bringing them to Silver and Jackie. Iplier obviously sees you as another target and is trying to take you under their wing. Probably tie you up with the other Sides you fight against.”

“Well he’ll be trying for a long time,” Virgil said, trying for overconfidence.

Dark put down his wine, just giving him a look, as if he thought Virgil was an idiot. “I’ve been in this game for a long time. The heroes will offer you things like protection from your past, and whatever you’ve done, which won’t be hard since to date you haven’t killed anyone or caused widespread physical damage. I wager you’ll accept within the month if nothing stops you.”

“I’m not a hero, I’m not going to be a hero,” Virgil sputtered, mostly because he hated having to explain it to Dark of all people, who really should understand that people didn’t stop being afraid of him.

“Let me tell you a story, and then I can tell you how you can help me,” Dark told him and he summoned three wooden mannequins, almost like the ones artists used. Their plates and glasses gone. “It’s a story of three friends.”

One of the mannequins had a military hat and a flat mustache, another with a grey suit, and a third with a red suit. Dark picked up the one in the gray suit and set it down in the center of the table. “Did the heroes tell you I was once one of them?”

Virgil was quiet, not sure how to answer.

Thankfully Dark didn’t need him to, “Back before we were anything official I used to work with a pair of brothers, and we were a great team. I always tried to do the right thing while our fearless leader ate up the limelight.”

Dark pushed the figure in a red suit forward as he moved the grey suit back. “At the time I didn’t care, I did more work without getting devoured by the media and if Mark wanted to waste his time strutting around like a peacock, I was determined to let him. We did good work the three of us, but teams don’t last forever. To make a long, sordid story bearable, the team broke apart and Mark almost had me destroyed. I came back, stronger and smarter. You would do well to head my lesson, Anxiety. The so-called  _ “heroes” _ are not to be trusted. They are charlatans and will destroy you when they no longer have a use for you.”

Anxiety looked away for a second, “So what do you want?”

The mannequins disappeared, replaced by a single plain folder, Dark smiled, “One of my, I guess you could call it, close associates was lured over to work with the heroes. Normally I wouldn’t care if he wanted to throw his life away, but in this circumstance he knows too much.”

“So what?” Anxiety said suspiciously. “Why not just march down to the heroes and get him back?”

“Because he has the ability to rewrite reality around him, literally,” Dark told him. “He wrote himself an escape route and took off. Every time I enter the base he uses his powers and J.J to send me back outside the base, and this cat and mouse game has gotten stale.”

“What am I supposed to do about that?” Virgil asked. “If he writes you back outside what do you expect me to do?”

“My aura clings to anything I’m in constant contact with, even being in the same room gets my aura on it,” Dark answered. “But you are outside my influence and Dr. Iplier has already taken a liking to you. All I want you to do is keep your eye out and whenever you can, tell me if you found him there or not.”

“That’s it?” Anxiety asked, instantly suspicious.

“Yes,” Dark slid the file. “That is all.”

“So you can kill him?” Anxiety asked.

“I see you have a conscious,” Dark smiled. “Well, don’t worry. I don’t want him dead, if I don’t have to. In fact, I believe that once we meet again, he’ll return willingly. So you don’t need to worry about someone dying on your account.”

Virgil hesitantly reached out for the file, but Dark didn’t move his hand.

“You can walk out of here, and make the same mistakes I once did, or you can take this file and if you do, I will expect you to report back to me.” Dark was staring into his eyes and the ringing was back, almost in full force.

Looking at the file, Virgil thought about Iplier, King, and even Patton. Patton had shifty powers but even Virgil had to admit he was trying to be a good person.  _ This guy _ sounded like actual bad news. Someone like that wrapped around the heroes, probably changing things to make them protect him. Virgil didn’t like that at all.

“I’ll do it,” Anxiety decided, trying to look Dark in the eye but the entity was just so unnerving. He might not have believed that he was once a hero, because that seemed absolutely impossible. But even the suggestion that Iplier and the others were being controlled by someone even half as powerful as Dark suggested, was way more believable. “I don’t think I can do it any time soon.”

“Oh, I’m counting on that,” Dark smiled and let Virgil take it. “Even if you find him your first time in the base, and you feel like you would alert him to our arrangement, you are to do everything in your power not to tell me anything.”

“Okay,” Virgil nodded, and cracked open the folder to see a single picture stapled in the corner of it. It was a waist-and-up picture of someone who looked like he was fresh out of high school, a black pinstripe shirt. The top two buttons undone, and the knob of the bat under his hands. Virgil noticed that his eyes were a dark gold, and he had a sharp, sly smile.

Taking the picture out, Virgil turned it over to see written in Dark’s fancy script: Arthur Issacs, 21.

“Best of luck, Virgil,” Dark reminded and the word seemed to flood with static, almost like the pause on a really old VCR. Virgil blinked, and he was standing back in front of the coffee shop, the picture still in his hands.

Chewing a bit on the inside of his cheek, Virgil commited the picture and the name to memory. Then he ripped the picture up and threw it away. The last thing he wanted was for Arthur to find him with that picture. Especially in enemy territory.

Virgil had a couple Light Sides to track down, starting with the friendliest one.


End file.
